Hague court seeks arrests for DRC's Kivus conflicts

AMSTERDAM, July 13 (Reuters) - The International Criminal
Court on Friday issued a new arrest warrant for Congolese
general Bosco Ntaganda, for alleged war crimes including murder,
rape and sexual slavery.

Ntaganda is already wanted by the Hague-based war crimes
court for conscripting child fighters in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC).

The court said the new warrant was for suspected war crimes
and crimes against humanity in the DRC's Kivu provinces, a
mineral-rich area plagued by long-running conflict, between
September 2002 and September 2003.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that Bosco Ntaganda
is responsible for three counts of crimes against humanity,
consisting in murder, rape and sexual slavery, and persecution,"
the court said in a statement.

"Bosco Ntaganda allegedly bears individual criminal
responsibility for four counts of war crimes consisting of
murder, attacks against the civilian population, rape and sexual
slavery, and pillaging," it added.

The ICC has sought Ntaganda's arrest for six years on
charges that he conscripted children to fight in a bloody ethnic
conflict in northeastern Congo that grew out of a broader civil
war. Ntaganda denies involvement in war crimes.

The court also issued an arrest warrant on Friday for
Sylvestre Mudacumura, the leader of the FDLR (Democratic Forces
for the Liberation of Rwanda) militia operating in the Kivu
provinces, saying he was suspected of war crimes between January
2009 and September 2010 in the area.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Mudacumura
is responsible for nine counts of war crimes, consisting of
attacking civilians, murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, rape,
torture, destruction of property, pillaging and outrages against
personal dignity," the court said in a statement.

The leaders of the mostly ethnic Hutu FDLR fled from Rwanda
to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 people
died, mostly ethnic Tutsis.

The group played a major role in Congo's 1998-2003 conflict,
in which 5 million people died, and has continued mass rapes,
torture and killing.

This week, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and
neighbouring states called for the creation of an international
military force to eliminate armed rebels in the DRC's turbulent
east.
(Reporting by Sara Webb; editing by Andrew Roche)